Inside Breaking Bad’s Finale Party with Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, and More at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery

“Walt and Jesse forever!” shouted Aaron Paul while bear-hugging Bryan Cranston at last night’s Breaking Bad–finale extravaganza. The Emmy-winning drama’s conclusion may not have been as warm and cuddly for Walter White and his meth-cooking soul mate, Jesse Pinkman, as viewers had hoped—how could it be with a Nazi machine-gun shootout?—but inside the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, at an awesomely immersive send-off event hosted by Netflix, AMC, Bushmills, and the Kind Campaign, the atmosphere was decidedly heartfelt. In fact, when Jimmy Kimmel welcomed the show’s complete cast onstage during a Q&A later that night, the discussion was derailed by what looked like one massive Breaking Bad group hug. “Maybe this was a bad idea,” Kimmel wondered aloud. “There are now more people up here than there are [in the audience].”

Indeed, cast members who had turned up to celebrate the Breaking Bad finale fittingly among the deceased included Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, R. J. Mitte, Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, and Giancarlo Esposito, as well as the actors responsible for playing Ted Beneke, Skinny Pete, Uncle Jack, Badger, the Twins, Gale Boetticher, “Eyebrows,” and Huell! (Huell, or actor Lavell Crawford, at least, had thankfully made it out of the safe house.)

Before the screening began, fans—some of whom wore yellow hazmat suits and carried custom-made Los Pollos Hermanos buckets—posed for photos inside an R.V., enjoyed drinks from bartenders in Heisenberg costumes, and sampled candy “meth” and blue-coated donuts on dessert tables decorated with bubbling beakers. Even the cocktail napkins—which told guests to “Have an A1 day!”—were Breaking Bad–themed. While guests sat atop bespokeBreaking Bad blankets provided by Bushnells, they were treated to a photo montage of Jesse and Walt over the last five seasons. When it was time to screen the pilot—an apéritif to the finale—Aaron Paul (in full yellow cook suit and goggles), R. J. Mitte, Giancarlo Esposito, and Paul Odenkirk arrived in an R.V. chariot to introduce the show’s first episode.

An hour or so later, before presenting the finale, Paul welcomed Bryan Cranston onstage as “my mentor. Without him, I absolutely would not be the actor I am today.” After greeting the audience by shouting, “Let’s cook!” Cranston shared a sweet first-season anecdote about Aaron Paul.

“We were out in the middle of the desert and it is hot,” Cranston remembered. “In Albuquerque, it gets very hot. We were working on this scene, sweating and rolling around. We had just broken for lunch. We were walking to go to the van, and we were wiping the sweat and the dust out of our eyes, and [Aaron looked at me and] said, ‘Isn’t this great?’”

“I said, ‘That is my wish for you—that you always feel how blessed and lucky we are,” Cranston continued. “That is Aaron Paul. He is a man who always understands his blessings in life.”

After Paul introduced Breaking Badmastermind Vince Gilligan to the stage, Paul took a moment to thank him on behalf of fans everywhere—many of whom were on Facebook, generating a staggering 5.5 million interactions throughout the evening. “Thank you for creating Breaking Bad,” Paul told him. “I think I speak for everyone here when I say how grateful I am just that you exist.”

Before the cast proceeded to a Bushmills-hosted after-party at the cemetery’s Masonic Lodge—where women in Los Pollos Hermanos uniforms and men in Heisenberg outfits (green button-downs, tighty whiteys) served fried chicken, homemade funions, and Heinsen-burgers—Jimmy Kimmel jumped onstage to moderate a panel discussion. (Our complete coverage of that can be found here.) “The only way that could have been better,” Kimmel said of the finale, “is if it ended with scenes from Season Six.”

“Aaron, I guess your character is the only one available if they want to make a movie,” Kimmel added.

With a glimmer in his eye, Paul leaned out and locked eyes with the show’s creator to sing-song, “Vinceeeeeeeeee . . . ”